In brief: Tik Tok and Musical.ly merge; state media refutes Google China reports

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ByteDance to fold Musical.ly into Tik Tok (China). The social media company is retiring the Musical.ly brand following its acquisition of the “karaoke app” late last year. Musical.ly will be discontinued and its features will be added to an updated version of ByteDance’s short video-sharing app Tik Tok. The branding and user interface for Tik Tok will also be refreshed to reflect the change. (South China Morning Post)

Earlier reports of Google’s imminent return to China are false, state media says (China). US “adversarial” news site The Intercept had previously reported that Google is developing a censor-friendly search engine with a view to re-entering the Chinese web search market within the next nine months. But state-owned China Securities Daily today claimed the reports to be untrue, citing information from “relevant departments” in the Chinese government. Google effectively pulled its search services out of China in 2010 in response to attacks from hackers allegedly linked to the Chinese government. (Reuters)

Other news

Starbucks CEO confirms delivery partnership with Alibaba (China). Kevin Johnson said that the US cafe chain will “integrate a Starbucks virtual store into all of the Alibaba Group properties,” including the Chinese company’s Hema supermarkets. It will also collaborate with Alibaba subsidiary Ele.me to bring on-demand delivery to 150 stores in Shanghai and Beijing, before expanding the service to 2,000 stores across 30 Chinese cities. (CNBC)

Food review app rewards users with cryptocurrency (Japan). SynchroLife, which is available in four languages across 155 countries, will let users earn its SynchroCoin token by contributing restaurant reviews. The startup was accepted into Plug and Play Japan’s first fintech-focused batch that takes place this summer. (SynchroLife)

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